Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
29 years since the Black Flame Candle was last lit, the 17th-century Sanderson sisters are resurrected, and they are looking for revenge. Now it's up to three high school students to stop the ravenous witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before dawn on All Hallow's Eve.
Hocus Pocus 2 is a largely formulaic sequel that retreads the beats of the original without adding meaningful new dimensions. The plot recycles the same basic structure—teens vs. resurrected Sanderson sisters on Halloween night—with little narrative invention. The three leads (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy) remain entertaining and commit fully to their roles, elevating the material above its script. Visually, the film is competent but unremarkable Disney+ production fare with no distinctive cinematographic identity. Novelty is genuinely low: this is a by-the-numbers legacy sequel that banks almost entirely on nostalgia, offering nothing surprising in concept or execution. The ending attempts some emotional resolution but feels unearned given the thin character development throughout.